The IPL 2023 mini-auction is less than a month away. The event is slotted for December 23 in Kochi. A total of 991 players (714 Indian and 277 overseas) have registered themselves for the auction.
From this, after inputs from all the 10 franchises, the final list will be chiseled down to a shorter list and the players will go under the hammer.
As many as 21 players have registered themselves in the highest base price bracket of 2 crore base price. Interestingly, all these 21 players are overseas and no Indian is in his category.
IPL 2023 auction Players in 2 crore bracket:
Nathan Coulter-Nile, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills, Jamie Overton, Craig Overton, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham, Kane Williamson, Rilee Rossouw, Rassie van der Dussen, Angelo Mathews, Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder
There are many established international players in this category, and there are a few young, emerging stars too. However, some renowned names could even go unsold in the auction.
Here are 3 international players in the 2 crore bracket that might go unsold in the IPL 2023 mini-auction:
Craig Overton
England pacer Craig Overton had gone unsold in last year’s mega-auction for IPL 2022 when also he had put himself in the INR 2 crore bracket. This time too he’s put himself in the highest base price category, and there doesn’t seem to be proper reasons for any of the franchises to buy Overton at such a high price given he hasn’t done much in the shortest format between the two auctions.
Overton has featured in 7 ODIs for England taking 5 wickets and has no experience of T20Is, though he has 70 wickets in as many T20s, but isn’t a trusted seamer. He got to play in only 1 match in the last The Hundred competition.
Overall, Overton has played in only 7 T20 matches in 2022, taking 12 wickets. On the batting front, Overton averages just 15 at a strike rate of 123 in T20 cricket. Having an overseas pacer who has little experience of high-level T20 cricket at 2 crores is unlikely to be on the cards of the IPL franchises. His brother, Jamie Overton, who is also a seam-bowling all-rounder, too is likely to go unsold. Jamie has played in only 1 Test match and limited-overs internationals.
Angelo Mathews
Veteran Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews has played in 49 IPL matches between 2009 and 2017 for three different teams with little impact on the team’s fortunes.
Mathews also hasn’t played a T20I or ODI for Sri Lanka since March 2021, and only dons the Test jersey for his country nowadays. So, you can consider that Mathews, who has set his base price at 2 crores, will all but certainly go unsold in the IPL 2023 mini-auction. The former Lankan captain at the age of 35 isn’t getting any younger.
Chris Lynn
Chris Lynn formed one of the most deadliest opening pairs in the IPL history with Sunil Narine in 2017-2019 during his time at KKR. However, his stocks after leaving KKR have dipped drastically. Mumbai Indians brought him at his base price of 2 crore and played him in only 1 match in 2020 when de Kock was unavailable and benched him throughout the 2021 season before releasing him.
Chris Lynn then went unsold in the IPL 2022 mega-auction when also he’d set his base price of 1.5 crore. Although Lynn regularly plays in franchise leagues around the world, franchises are unlikely to be interested in his services in the, in particular at 2 crore, because there are already so much of Indian and overseas younger and talented opening alternatives available.
